Giving a Mass as a Christmas Gift

Can a Mass Be Offered for Someone Living? §

Yes. Canon law says “it is open to a priest to apply the Mass for anyone at all, the living as well as the dead” (canon 901, our translation). To apply a Mass is the Church’s word for offering it for someone. The Catechism teaches that the Eucharist is offered “to obtain spiritual or temporal benefits from God” (Catechism, 1414), and that covers most of what people hope for at Christmas.

So a Mass can be for a father recovering from surgery, a couple married this year, a godchild’s first Christmas, a friend who has drifted from the faith, or your pastor, or in thanksgiving for a new grandchild. The person doesn’t need to be Catholic, and doesn’t need to know until you hand them the card.

Behind the card is one particular Mass. Each offering given and accepted is owed a Mass of its own (canon 948), and the parish writes it in its Mass book, with the date once it has been said (canon 958).

How Early Should I Ask for a Christmas Mass Card? §

Now, if you can. Advent begins on Sunday 29 November, and Christmas falls on Friday 25 December, a holy day of obligation (USCCB, Liturgical Calendar 2026). In most parishes the Christmas Masses are among the first to be asked for. And on Christmas Day one of the pastor’s Masses is the Mass for the people, which is owed to the whole parish and takes no one’s request (canon 534; the Mass pro populo).

The Mass doesn’t have to be on Christmas to be a Christmas gift. Ask the office for a date in the Christmas season or in January, and write that date on the card. Plenty of people hand over the card on Christmas morning for a Mass in the new year, and if the person lives nearby, the date lets them go.

What to Write on a Christmas Mass Card §

Ask the office for a Mass card when you ask for the Mass. Cards for the living often read “for the intentions of” the person, rather than “for the repose of the soul of”.¹ Inside, a line or two in your own words is enough.

• A Mass will be offered for you at [Parish] on [date]. Merry Christmas, with all my love.
• I asked Father to offer a Mass for your intentions this Christmas. It’s the best gift I know how to give.
• On your first Christmas, a Mass will be offered for you at [Parish]. I’ll be there praying for you.
• Catholics have a custom of asking a priest to offer a Mass for someone they love. I’ve asked for one for you this Christmas.

The last one is for someone who isn’t Catholic (more wording).

If your parish prints the week’s intentions in the bulletin, give the office the person’s name and leave out the reason. A Mass for a friend’s health or a son’s return to the faith can be listed by name alone, or as a special intention (names in the bulletin).

For Someone Facing a First Christmas Without Someone §

A Mass card can also go to a friend whose mother died in the spring, with a Mass for the repose of her soul in the Christmas season. Address it to your friend, use her mother’s name inside, and say you’re thinking of them both. A first Christmas after a death can be a hard one, and a card that names the person who is missing tells your friend you haven’t forgotten her either.

A Novena of Masses or an Enrollment §

Some religious communities offer Christmas enrollments. The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, for one, offers a Christmas Novena of Masses from 17 to 25 December at its seminary chapel or its North American headquarters chapel, and says “a donation is not necessary to enroll loved ones in the Novena.”² Your person shares in Masses offered for everyone enrolled. That’s a real gift of prayer, and a different promise from one Mass for one person on a date your parish can tell you (what each kind of card promises).

A spiritual bouquet is a third thing: prayers and Masses attended that you promise yourself, with no priest taking on an intention (spiritual bouquets). Any of the three makes a good gift, as long as the card says which it is.

What Is the Offering? §

It’s customary to give an offering with the request, and most U.S. dioceses that publish a figure say $10 (how much to give). The offering is a gift, not a payment: those who give it “contribute to the good of the Church, and by that offering share in her care for the support of her ministers and works” (canon 946). Some parishes ask a few dollars more to mail a card, and that’s for the card and the stamp.

If you can’t give an offering this year, ask anyway. “Priests are earnestly urged to celebrate Mass for the intention of the faithful, especially those in need, even when no offering has been received” (canon 945 §2).

What to Tell the Office §

Call or stop by the parish office with these ready (the steps in full):

• The person’s name, and that they’re living.
• Two or three dates that would suit, or “any day in January”.
• That you’d like a Mass card, and whether the parish should mail it or you’ll pick it up.
• The address, if they’re mailing it.
• The offering, if you’re giving one.

Parish staff: you’re welcome to link this page from your parish’s Mass intentions page, or to print it in the bulletin before Advent.